Android KitKat Heads to Devices

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Google announced that the new version of Android, known as 4.4 or KitKat, will appear on the new Nexus 4, and other Nexus and Android devices in the coming weeks.

KitKat will also show up on the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play Editions in the next few weeks, according to Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps on the Official Google blog.

However, those with the Galaxy Nexus will be disappointed. The update won't be coming because it now "falls outside of the 18-month update window when Google and others traditionally update devices," according to 9to5Google.

From the Google post:

With KitKat, we've slimmed down Android’s memory footprint by doing things like removing unnecessary background services and reducing the memory consumption of features that you use all the time. We did this not only within Android but across Google services like Chrome and YouTube. RAM (or memory) is one of the most expensive parts of a phone, and now Android can run comfortably on the 512MB of RAM devices that are popular in much of the world, bringing the latest goodies in Android 4.4 within reach for the next billion smartphone users.

The news seems to confirm reports that the new version of Android was supposed to make the platform accessible across the globe.so those in the developing world can purchase new low-end, updated and less-fragmented Android phones.